First Presbyterian Church

In my last posting, I explained that we now find ourselves living in a time of high velocity change where the perception of truth is based not on some unchanging constant but on the experience of the individual. In addition, the once prominent place of protestant Christianity in our nation has given way to religious pluralism and an increasing secularism. What we are finding as a result is that the ministries developed in that simpler time, which were good and appropriate, just don't seem to have the same impact on people today, and church participation in many denominations have plateaued or are in decline.

Pastor Erwin McManus has written: “Over the past 40 years, the communities around many churches have changed dramatically, yet the church has stayed the same. The transition began incrementally and so the local congregation was unaware. Yet now, the church must acclimate to a changing world or she will destine herself to irrelevance or even extinction.”

So what is the church to do? The first step is to believe that the message of Jesus is still relevant to our world today. The need of people for meaning, grace, forgiveness, and healing is still present and may be even more important in this time of turbulent change.

Then we, as the church of Jesus Christ, need to recapture the missionary vision that the early church had yet at the same time use methods that are appropriate to our 21st Century world. Churches that are plateaued or are declining have a vision for ministry that is about experiencing and maintaining the church and its programs. Churches that are thriving have a vision that is about experiencing and serving God. In other words, in order to successfully navigate this major foundational shift in our culture, churches must shift their expectation from wanting people to experience the church to wanting people to experience God, and they must shift their vision from just maintaining programs to transforming people’s lives.

Our church began this crucial step when it approved our new vision statement that says “It is our vision to become a community of believers where people are being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ.” The idea is that we will begin to evaluate our current ministries and design new ministries through the lense of this vision. In other words, in everything we do, we ask how this particular ministry helps people in our church and community become transformed into the image of Christ.

Now transformation is a big word that can become meaningless unless we put flesh to it. It means to be changed...but changed how? Well, when we become more caring; when we become more faithful, to our spouses, families, church and God; when we become more truthful in how we conduct ourselves with those around us; when we become more forgiving, we are being transformed into the image of Christ. To be transformed into the image of Christ is to show more evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

The ironic thing about transformation is that you aren’t transformed by trying harder to do any of these things. Instead you are transformed by drawing closer to the one who does the changing in our lives - the Spirit of Christ. So in order to move into our vision of transformation, we undertake the practices that bring us closer to God. Then God does his work in us.

I would like to encourage you to reflect on what “transformation” would look like in your life. In our next newsletter, I’ll begin to look at some of the specific practices that get us closer to God so that God can work His amazing transformational power in our lives.

Grace and peace to each of you!
Your friend and pastor,
Pastor Lee